There are no new reviews since last time, so I thought I'd throw this up - it's a list of my (current) top ten toys of all time.
- Grimlock (Transformers, Generation 1)
- Millennium Falcon playset
- He-Man (the 1981 original)
- Boba Fett figure (original)
- Godzilla '62 (Bandai 1983)
- Kargosaur (Gaiking, Popy Shogun Warriors)
- Rancor (original)
- All four TMNT (originals)
- Wolverine (very first ToyBiz version)
- Weed Killer (1990 Swamp Thing line)
A lot of them are obvious, such as the Star Wars stuff, but a few are a bit more esoteric.
Grimlock needs no explanation - I mean, it's a toy that turns into a robot and a tyrannosaurus rex. What red-blooded American boy wouldn't want that?
I was a big Godzilla fan as a kid, and I was very lucky that my parents took the time to trek out to Mr. Big Toyland in Waltham, Mass. and drop $20 or more on imported Bandai Godzilla toys. These were much better than the hard rubber things Imperial was putting out (though they were also more fragile - the Godzilla '62 that currently resides in my toy shrine is my third).
Kargosaur is a special case. Back when I was a wee tyke, there was an anime series called Force Five (I think) that used to come on. It was a rotating collection of various anime series. My favorite was a show called Gaiking, and the Kargosaur - a.k.a. "Space Dragon" - was the highlight of both the show and the Popy Shogun Warriors toy line. My young parents spent the $25 they'd been saving for Valentine's Day on this thing to get it for me when I was three or four. Twenty years later, they took out a second mortgage on the house, I think, to get me a new one as a surprise Christmas present (the original having long since vanished).
The last oddball on there is Weed Killer. This innocuous figure - resembling a green-skinned janitor in an orange jumpsuit - served as the perfect henchman to many of my villainous action figures. It was an odd little design for a random character from a relatively obscure toy line based on an obscure superhero, and even now I have a very soft spot in my heart for ol' WK.
Of course, we invite everyone to share their own top ten lists on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.
